There is nothing wrong with you! This is the first and possibly the most surprising thing you will learn from me. You will also learn that it is true, and that will be the most freeing thing you will ever learn from anyone. In our very first session, expect to be HEARD and SEEN. Clients often come in with diagnoses already tacked onto them. Depression, anxiety, and/or severe adjustment disorders are often part of the stories they tell me about themselves. I have tremendous compassion for you. I am not interested in the negative labels or self-defeating stories that you have been carrying around like heavy burdens. I am interested in going right through them and discovering who YOU are.
What can clients expect to take away from sessions with you?
In our very first session, expect to be HEARD and SEEN. Not through the lenses of your "problems" and/or "symptoms." They provide us with useful information, but they are not YOU! I will look through them to see YOU, and I will value what I see. Expect to feel valued, then, because you will be.
Explain to clients what areas you feel are your biggest strengths.
That psychotherapy is a “helping profession” is not news. What it has been helpful FOR, however, has often been to learn how to live within the limits of externally imposed standardizations of “normal”-- in order to be ”mentally healthy, of course”-- which in turn was supposed to “make you happier.” And if it didn’t, you were given a “diagnosis”– you were pathologized, in other words-- which by definition means branded as “psychologically abnormal or unhealthy.” Does any of that sound familiar? Well, it is a description of what you will NOT get from me! Although learning to live more comfortably within the boundaries of cultural norms may indeed, feel helpful, it is like taking medication to numb symptoms that are trying to tell you what is WRONG. I will hear your symptoms. They have their own language. In my 30+ years as a psychotherapist, I have become very good at decoding and understanding the language of symptoms. I will is listen to your symptoms, and trust them. LISTEN to you. SEE you. Trust YOU. Together, we will journey deep inside you and find all kinds of wonderful things as we uncover your uniqueness. We'll discover resources, strengths, and gifts within you that you never knew you had. We will help you find and LIVE the kind of life that suits you, and so brings you joy. Won't that be wonderful? “It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society.” ― J. Krishnamurti
About Judith Dagley Flaherty
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VirtualMy treatment methods
Eclectic
My work is eclectic because you are unique. I don't come in with a "one size fits all" treatment method and expect you to fit into it! Instead, as I get to know you, a treatment method that is uniquely yours evolves organically. Of course, having 30+ years of clinical experience with listening and empathizing helps me to find it, that's for sure!
Person-centered (Rogerian)
Would it not seem that ALL treatment methods are "person-centered?!" Unfortunately not, it seems. However, all of my work-- no matter how eclectic-- is base on this premise. "Person-centered" means having "unconditional positive regard" for one's client. Whatever unique treatment method I develop for you, it will be based on my unconditional positive regard for you as a person. In other words, I will always see the best in you, and I will always be on your side, no matter what.
Narrative
What do we have to share in therapy except stories about ourselves (or "narratives")? What we find out is that our stories always seem to resonate with core beliefs about "not being good enough" in some way! Then, finding out that those core beliefs are FALSE is quite a wonderful process. Exposing the negative stories we've learned about ourselves as not only false but not even OURS is quite an awakening. Then, we can write NEW narratives for ourselves, which is nothing less than transformational! Truly.
Solution Focused Brief Treatment
First of all, only half of the name given to this methodology accurately applies to my use of it- "Solution Focused." Brief it may or may not be, depending on how much work we will need to do together. For me, "solution focused" is a mindset, and it never fails to bear fruit. It involves listening very carefully. With a focus on solutions, that is what I hear. Often, they are embedded in the "problem." Always, I will find solutions in the hidden resources and strengths you share with me, often without even knowing you have them!